Ivan Fediuchenko, 19 year old wushu athlete from Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture

The Samsun 2022 FISU University World Cup Combat Sports is underway in Turkey. This unique event for FISU has seen six sports come together to feature their top university-athletes in boxing, karate, muaythai, SAMBO, wrestling and wushu. Each of these sports have featured individually as FISU World University Championships, or in some cases as part of past FISU World University Games, over the last many years. FISU University World Cups feature athletes representing their universities rather than their countries, as is the case at FISU World Championships and FISU Games.

Team Ukraine dominated SAMBO competition on day 1.Samsun, a city of 700,000 people on the coast of the Black Sea in Turkey, has welcomed 1,100 participants (800 athletes and 300 officials), from over 300 universities and 50 countries to compete 21 to 30 September. Wushu and SAMBO were featured sports on the opening day with Sumy State University of Ukraine coming away with two gold medals courtesy Yaryna Fedorchenko in women’s SAMBO 50kg class and Oleksil Halaka in men’s SAMBO +98kg class.

It was a great day one for Ukrainian universities as they came away with 15 medals (four gold, five silver, six bronze) while Turkish athletes had a very solid start to competition on home soil with 10 medals, led by Manisa Celal Bayar University with one gold and one bronze. Merve Topoğlu of Turkey’s Trakya University claimed the country’s other gold in women’s 72kg SAMBO and spoke of her history with the sport. “I love the challenge of SAMBO. I started SAMBO at 13 years old with the support from my teacher at school.Merve Topoğlu of Turkey’s Trakya University I like this event because I can socialise with the other country’s athletes,” she said.

Turkmen State Institute of Physical Education and Sports led all universities in total medals on the first day with four, including gold in 58kg men’s SAMBO from Muhammet Babekov. “I’m really enjoying the competitions and happy to win a golden medal. I also want to wish good luck to my twin-brother Niyaz who’s competing tomorrow in SAMBO as well,” said Babekov.

Volunteers are also getting into the action as they play a crucial role at the event. Noor Saleha Salem, a journalism student at Ondokuz Mayıs Üniversitesi said, “I’m so glad to be a part of the FISU World Cup Combat Sports as a volunteer because it was a perfect coincidence for me to be assigned under the Media Team, which I am very much interested. … I’ve met lots of amazing athletes, [learned about] new sports and also started to build my network as well. I’m looking forward more to the next days of the FISU Combat Sports for more exciting experience!”

Day two of the 2022 FISU World Cup Combat Sports on Thursday 22 September will feature the final day of SAMBO competition and the continuation of wushu. Muaythai will be the next of the six sports to get started with preliminary bouts on Saturday 24 September, while boxing will start 25 September, wrestling on 26 September, and karate as the final sport to get going on 27 September.

Written by Doug McLean